Fourty Meetings
by Hellsig Otoupeim
Summary: Alligator Nichol. He came in, didn't even bother with a hello and asked me to become his sex partner. Fourty Meetings that led to this disaster I call a relationship between two Jackals: Alligator Nichol and Adamant Nox.
1. Chapter 1 First Meeting

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Alligator Nichol, nor the concept of Jackals. However, Nox and Venia are mine. Other than the earlier mentionned, any resemblence with existing material and/or real life events is purely fortuity.

* * *

He came into the bar, carelessly displaying his weapon strapped to his back. He nodded coldly to the owner and his gaze swept the place. The bar was quite busy tonight, filled with half drunken people and entirely wasted youth. Finally, his eyes landed on the only free sit in this place; the chair opposite me. He made his way towards the table I was at, swerving with power the drunken mess. His hand grabbed the back of the chair.

"_may I?"

I merely nodded, waiting for the barman to come and serve me my white wine. Alligator and I were in complete silence when the owner came to take his choice and placed a half filled glass of Gewurstraminer next to my hand. I felt Alligator's eyes on me as I slowly swirled the golden liquid inside the glass, before bringing it to my nose. I closed my eyes to inhale the scent, a small smirk stretching my lips as the aroma filled my brain. I took a sip.

Alligator's ale was arriving we still had not exchanged a word. I made myself comfortable in my seat and waited for the rest of the evening to slowly drown by in my glass of white wine, when the thump of an object hitting wood made me turn my head. About three hundred dollars were on the table. I looked at the jackal in front of me, raising an eyebrow.

"_Is it not enough?"

I shook my head, amused, before replying.

"_I don't have selling my body as a habit" his brow furrowed, and he was about to grab the money when I snatched it. "But because you are quite handsome, I will make an exception."

.

There was no emotions, no love. All he wanted was a quick fuck, a simple release. The Alligator laid on the bed next to us, its deadly edge shining in the shadows. Venia was retracted, just as it had been in the bar, but not fully gone, giving my skin silver highlights. There was no tenderness, no care. We both wanted just a quick fix, and nothing more. Alligator Nichol left straight after and I did the same once a shower had gotten the smell of sex off. There weren't any feelings. Nothing.


	2. Chapter 2 Second Meeting

The second time I met Alligator Nichol, he did not recognize me. I was tracking a man, having been contacted by a member of a gang –which I cannot remember, and Nichol happened to be wanting the same person. I got to the prey before him, and finished the job. Blood was splattered onto the wall when Alligator Nichol entered the dingy motel room the person was hiding in. His head was already in my hands, and I was ready to fight for it. He merely came in, took in the carnage and turned around after throwing a pathetic "sorry to have disturbed" at me. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh of hunt him down in anger. He hadn't recognized me under the shadow of my hood. How sad. Or not.


	3. Chapter 3 Third Meeting

It took Alligator Nichol another full week before he came to me again. I wasn't exactly expecting him, though I was aware of him as soon as he entered the bar. Venia was retracted, which meant that hopefully he would not draw the dots between me and the person he had seen killing. I am not quite sure why I didn't want the Alligator to know who I was. He came to my table almost as soon as he spotted me, though a few others were free at this time. He didn't even bother sitting down before asking;

"_do you have something planned or are you free?" four hundred landed on the table as I stood again and followed him upstairs.

.

Alligator Nichol was, for sure, a man made of muscles. I had all the pleasure to see every inch of him as, this time, he undressed for me. His whole body was muscle. His tanned flesh an invite to luxury and pleasure. He was... Almost a drug. The sharp edge of the Alligator dug in my side more than once, the weapon tasting the metallic tinge of my blood. He did not fully notice, until his hand came to rest on my side and he felt the warm, luxurious liquid onto his fingers. He was about to stop when I flipped us over and took onto me to make him forget the taste of my blood. Venia was slowly buzzing by my side, repairing damaged flesh as if the teeth of the Alligator were naught but a blunt knife.

Alligator Nichol stayed a bit longer, for a warm shower before he left the building. I was still on the bed, buried inside the sheets when the door slammed. I believe I fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4 Sixth Meeting

The sixth time Alligator Nichol came, I was in my bath. For a while now he had been coming every Saturday, and booking the same room. I had finished a mission early and was now covered in dried blood so I had decided to go to the hotel and settle for a bath. The shower had run first, to help me get rid of the grim, before the soothing feeling of warm water on my skin and the deafening sound of the bath's tap had taken over. The silence inside the bathroom was now complete, only broken here and there by the crystalline sound of a drop. I felt the door open, and could sense the moving shape of Nichol and the Alligator before I saw them. He leaned his weapon against the wall of the bathroom, and slowly began undressing quietly. A small smirk appeared on my lips when I felt him enter the warm water. His hands worked wonders.

The water was cold by the time he and I were done. Some of it had spilled onto the tiled floor, and the bathroom had become very slippery. He stood up first, extending his hands as to offer me help to get out. I took it, rolling my eyes whilst playing the part of the damsel, and he hoisted me up into his arms, only to drop me back onto the bed in the next room.

The Alligator laid forgotten, leaning onto the wall.


	5. Chapter 5 Eleventh Meeting

The eleventh time, Alligator Nichol came to the room before me. I arrived late, having just finished a tricky job and was in desperate need of a shower. I didn't bother knocking and strode in, only to see him lying on the bed, asleep. I quietly made my way to the bathroom and took a quick shower. Solely clad in a towel, I opened the door to see him awake, sitting on the bed. He rose when he saw me, giving me a small embrace.

"_one second, I thought you weren't going to come." There was some cockiness in his voice, and he slowly began to shed his clothes.

"_wouldn't miss our little rendezvous."

.

I was expecting Nichol to leave directly after we had finished, or to fall asleep, but he laid on his back, staring at the ceiling. I placed my chin onto my palms, propping up my elbows and looked at him.

"_what's up?" he turned to face me.

"_what do you think of the gangs?"

It was the first time the Alligator and I had a conversation. It was basic, nothing too philosophical. Merely judging the strength and weaknesses of the different parties, guestimating their chances of winning this petty war. The content wasn't what mattered. It was the talking we cared about.


	6. Chapter 6 Fifteenth Meeting

Four meetings later, on the fifteenth, the Alligator came to me wounded. He had a rather rough cut on his abdomen, running from the base of his neck to his upper packs. His right leg was also painful, from what I could see. I drew a chair for him and he heavily sat on it, though I knew he would refuse any help to get to it. I went into the bathroom, searching for the first aid kit and came back out. Nichol had moved from the chair to the bed, and was lying there with his eyes closed. I slowly shook my head, before carefully disinfecting the cut and bandaging it. His eyes opened as I was drawing up his trouser leg. He looked at me, before simply shedding his clothe. I rolled my eyes at how much of a show off he was, and got to work on the bullet wound.

I didn't ask any question as to how he had gotten it. I never did. He was a jackal. He survived as one, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

Once all the first aid was done, I gave him two painkillers and told him to get some sleep. He looked at me strangely, before doing as told. For the first time, it registered in my brain that the Alligator wasn't with him. I looked around the room, before I noticed the weapon lying onto the floor. The blade was sick with blood. Carefully, I picked it up. I drew a piece of cloth from the first aid box and slowly began to clean the sharp edge. Dried blood makes a weapon stick to a holder, or the clothes. These precious seconds lost during the un-shielding of a weapon can make the difference between life and death. I was not going to take this risk with Nichol.


	7. Chapter 7 Sixteenth Meeting

On the sixteenth, the Alligator came in silence. No words were said as I kept looking out of the window. Only his arms wrapping around my middle as he led us to the bed. Venia was fully gone by that time, only noticeable as the silver ring in my eyes. The Alligator had been leaned against the wall before he had approached me. Far away from reach. Was it trust?

Nichol was still fully clothed, lying next to me on the bed. We were staring at the ceiling, watching the small cracks appearing and talking about life as a jackal. I think he fell asleep at one point. I remember smiling at his peaceful form, before putting the covers over him. I had then invaded the bathroom and gotten ready for sleep. When I awoke the following morning, it was already seven. The sun had broken the horizon long before I rose, and I expected him to be gone, as per usual. He came after dusk and left before dawn. I stood up from the warmth of the bed, grabbed clothes and quickly got ready to go downstairs to get some breakfast at the hotel lobby. The sound of someone coming upstairs had Venia make an appearance. I looked around the room and my eyes widened. The Alligator was still against the wall. Puzzled, I turned to the door as it opened to reveal Nichol, carrying two plates of food.

"_morning." He casually said, closing the door with his booted foot. I smirked at him when I saw the plates.

"_mornin' sunshine." He pulled a face.

Thank you gift?


	8. Chapter 8 Thirty Second Meeting

The seventeenth time happened the following day. And the eighteenth the day after. Soon, we were meeting in the dingy hotel room on an everyday basis. Until the thirty second meeting, two and a half weeks after I had taken care of him. His touch on my skin had become gentler. His lips had once or twice already found mine. We weren't having sex any longer. We were making love.

On our thirty second meeting, Nichol had laid next to me, his arm across my bare back as he slept. Somehow, I couldn't sleep. I couldn't close my eyes. I was afraid. For the first time in my life, I was afraid. A nagging feeling was eating me alive. I was scared he would leave me. I spent my night looking at him, embedding his every feature inside my brain. Committing him to memory. I was afraid. I, Adamant Nox, the Jackal no one had ever met, the Angel of Death. I was afraid to lose someone.

Someone who didn't even know who I was.

Of course I knew Nichol was a jackal. How could I not know Alligator Nichol, when so many times we had an almost-run-in. I knew him. I knew every scar of his body, every welt of his mind. I knew his thoughts, his fears, and his needs. But him, did he even know me? Did he know me as Mythril, as I had said my name was, or as Nox? Did he know me?

I faked sleep when Nichol awoke that morning. He stared at me for a long time, as if he knew I was not asleep, before quietly rising off the bed. He dressed himself, put his long, steeled, black coat on and grabbed the Alligator. Then, Alligator Nichol left the dingy hotel room we had met in, leaving behind only his scent of the pillow.


	9. Chapter 9 Thirty Third Meeting

Our thirty third meeting never really happened. To him at least.

He had stopped coming. Entirely. I had waited, three weeks, the longest a job had ever token a jackal, before making up my mind. He was not coming back. All the sadness I had felt over these past three weeks had morphed into anger. I had stormed out of the room and slithered over to the nearest intermediate. I had token the highest paying job available and, fully clad in Venia, I had slaughtered. There was no other words for it. The Alligator slaughtered his prey in a violent, hungry fashion. I had slaughtered mine in a hateful design. None were alive, none were whole. All that was left of most was blood. Oh, the blood. My signature, my art. It was smeared in beautiful arcs on the walls, was tainting the floor with the taste of my sins. It was dripping from my body as I relished in it. It was my drug, it was my lifeline. It was all that Nichol had once been.

That bastard.

He had come into the room I had just slaughtered. Had looked around at the beauty of my work and had turned on his heels. He had not seen me, hidden in the shadows. It would have been so easy for me then. All I needed to do as to extend my hands and Alligator Nichol would be dead. Before he even saw it. I did not. I could not. I stepped out of the merciful shadows, disregarding my art before jumping out of the window.

The Angel of Death was back. In hate.


	10. Chapter 10 Thirty Sixth Meeting

There was a thirty fourth, and a thirty fifth, though he never really knew of them. Every time, his frustration would grow at seeing his prays being killed before he got to them. I could see it in his face, as he slowly built up pent up rage. I could see it eating him from inside. He was annoyed, on the verge of hunting me down.

I was destroying, killing, slaughtering, evicting, gutting my guests. In a feat of madness, I smeared blood onto my hand before, with a scream of rage and pain, slamming it onto the wall. The hurt I felt, I wanted him to share it as well. I could feel the house shake under the blazing hate taking over my body. Everything went Red. I remember writing with the blood around me a message to the Alligator, mocking his attempts at catching me. He had made an enemy out of me the day he had left the motel.

I fell to the floor.

My knees were pressed tight against my chest, as I blankly stared at my art. The blood was slowly, sickly, thickly rolling down the wall in uncertain waves. The dead bodies, or what was left of them, were laying in a pool of their own blood. And I was there, in the middle of the orderly chaos. Blankly staring at the door. Expecting Him to come through at any given moment. Any single moment.

He didn't.

After three hours of rocking back and forth on my hills, the Red receded. My mind cleared as I slowly gained control over my actions. No longer was I a beast trapped in the cage of my own mind. The blood had dried all around me, and Venia was slowly buzzing. Trying to fix a wire in my brain. It had snapped the day Nichol left. I shakily got up to my feet, as Venia came to cover my whole body. Once I was devoid of any identity, entirely covered by a skin of adamant, I left the room.

The flakes of dried blood were being shed off by Venia, who slowly started to glow from the evening sun. I quickly covered myself with my cloak, and faded into the shadows of the night.

Alligator Nichol. You will be the next pray.


	11. Interlude

I never stopped going to that bar. I would go there every Saturday, order a glass and watch my evening go by for an hour or so. When the time neared what it once was when Nichol first entered, I would stand up, leave the bar for the motel across the street and book the same room. It still smelt of us.

Dried blood and sex.

I would then lie down on the bed, after taking a shower, and curl up in the blankets that reminded me of him. Venia would be gently buzzing, trying to stop the flow of blood from one of the cuts I had made that day.

One for each day He was gone, one for each time I thought of Him.

But, I do want you to know I never cried. Not once. Tears never left my eyes. I had none to cry. A shattered heart does not feel.


	12. Chapter 12 Fortieth Meeting

Our fortieth meeting was instigated by Alligator Nichol.

It was late in the evening, five months after he had disappeared out of Mythril's life –my life. I had just come back from a job. I had been taking them longer and longer. More and more dangerous. I had been craving the feel of the fight, letting the Red take over and drown me. I had been crazy for an escape. I had skipped going to the bar, unlike the usual, and had directly gone to the motel room. I had been dying to have a shower and ask Venia to come out and mend my wounds. I could not afford anyone in that district to realize Mythril and Adamant Nox were only one, or Nichol might eventually hear of it.

So I came into the hotel lobby, sending a cold nod to the keeper. He smiled back at me, and for a second I saw something in his eyes. Before I could grab it, he had turned around and had handed me a key to our –My room. I had slowly gone up the stairs, my bloodied hand sliding on the banister to the upper level. I had stopped in front of the room, inserted the key in the door and froze. There was someone inside. I could feel it. Someone tall, carrying a heavy weapon. Venia came out almost instantly. I noiselessly turned the key and stood still. The man on the other side was intently watching the door, expecting me through any moment. I waited for his attention to be diverted before I slammed it open and barged in. I was about to slice his throat when I noticed who was there.

Alligator Nichol.

The man I had been waiting for five months long. He was sitting there, his unwavering gaze locked onto mine. I hurriedly retracted Venia from his neck before I turned around and went to hang my cloak in the closet.

"_what do you want?"

My voice was shaking. I was shaking inside, ready to break into hundreds of small, minute pieces. I had been slowly building myself up inside my madness, and here he was bringing me down again. The Red threatened to take over.

"_Mythril..."

I turned around, putting a facade up and glaring at him.

"_that's not my name." I said in a cold, heartless voice. "I am called Nox."

He took a step back from the venom inside my voice. His eyes widened in realisation.

"_Nox... As is Adamant Nox?"

"_why are you here, Alligator Nichol?"

He tried to reach to me, but I turned my back on him.

"_listen... I know I was a bit of a douche..."

I blew up. The Red took over.

"_A bit? A bit?! What? Do you expect me to remain faithfully waiting for five months until you come back when I don't even know why you left in the first place? Do you really expect me to welcome you as if it was only yesterday you left this room."

I was pounding on his chest by now. Venia was covering my fists, dealing great damage to Nichol who just stood there, letting himself feel naught but a fragment of my pain.

"_I am truly an idiot." I was whispering by now. Had I been less cold, tears would have been pouring down my cheeks. My hands gripped the side of his coat. "I had dreamt of a thousand ways for you to come back and me to tell you I don't need you anymore. I had pondered the best words to say, to most hurtful ones. And now that you are in front of me, there and I have the best chance to hurt you as you hurt me, I can't."

His arms closed around me. I felt the warmth of his embrace as his face bent to hide in the crook of my neck.

"_I am an idiot. An idiot who can't say no to you."

All hell broke loose.

His lips found mine, whilst my hands were fumbling at lightning speed to take off his clothes. He fell with me onto the bed, as we got rid of the last annoying items. His body pressed against mine. I couldn't have enough of him. I could never have enough. His touch was feverish, his hands demanding. His lips were warm with sin, his body strong with want. I wanted him. More, I needed him.

And the best was, he needed me too.

.

"_why did you leave?"

Him and I were lying on the bed. His hands was around my waist as my head was resting on his chest. I looked up at him, and his gaze crossed mine.

"_I didn't want to put you in unnecessary danger."

My brows furrowed, as I propped up my elbows and leaned onto my palm.

"_what do you mean?"

His face turned to me.

"_I left so that people wouldn't draw the dots between you and I."

"_then why did you come back?" there was solely curiosity in my voice. I think it amused him.

"_someone I know, my grandfather, told me that if I had been ready to leave to make sure you were safe, instead of just risking your life for my pleasure, then I was in love. It took me some time to come to a conclusion."

I laid back down on the bed, looking pleased. His head left the pillow for him to look at me.

"_that's the moment you ask me what the conclusion was."

I smirked, and said

"_I don't need to. Either you don't care enough so you came back for pleasure, in which case I will see loads of you, or you came back because you loved me, and then I can hope you'll stick by, even when knowing who I am."

He smirked.

"_oh, I am sure I am going to stick by."

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**Hello! I would like to ask of those who bothered to read until the end some feedback on the story. Was it good? Bad? Worth the read?  
Thanks for sticking by, and I hope you did enjoy the read!**

**May the Valars watch over you ;)**


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